Korean pitchers surrendered three home runs in a crushing loss to Chinese Taipei at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) on Sunday, a defeat that pushed the country to the brink of yet another early exit. Starter Ryu Hyun-jin and the two pitchers that followed him, Gwak Been and Dane Dunning, each allowed a home run in a 5-4 loss in 10 innings in Pool C play at Tokyo Dome. Ryu retired the side in order in the top of the first inning, getting two groundouts in the process. But Ryu surrendered a solo home run to Chang Yu to begin the second inning. The left-hander tried to sneak a fastball by Chang, who drilled the knee-high pitch and launched it 366 feet into left field. Ryu quickly regrouped to retire the next three batters, two via strikeouts. Ryu wiggled out of a two-out, two-on jam by striking out the dangerous Stuart Fairchild for the final out. And it also ended up being Ryu's last strikeout of the game, with right-hander Gwak taking the ball to begin the fourth inning. Gwak started pumping fastballs from the get-go, touching 97.9 miles per hour against Chang Yu. Gwak sat the first six str